ICCI lauds govt’s initiative for devising security policy

ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has welcomed government’s initiative to devise a comprehensive national security policy to tackle challenges to peace and stability of the country.

Talking to businessmen here on Tuesday, ICCI President Zafar Bakhtawari said that the new policy should address all the security problems being faced by the country.

He said since independence, Pakistan had been facing many internal and external security challenges as it had always played a frontline role to counter terrorism. Now it has become imperative to devise and implement security policy for economic development of the country that has suffered a lot due to terrorism and unemployment, he added. The ICCI President said rising security threats were badly damaging business activities and discouraging investment and urged the government to take measures to curb the trend.

He said the security situation had affected the country’s economic growth and investment, including foreign direct investment. Similarly exports had been stagnant at $24 billion for the last two years, so proactive measures should be taken to resolve the economic issues, he added. He appreciated the determination of government to bring peace for economic stability at all costs. The five-layer approach of national security policy to dismantle, to contain, to prevent, to educate and to reintegrate all dimensions of security problems at all levels was appreciable. He said the government should consider inter-state as well as its intra-state security issues.

He proposed that Pakistan should follow China’s backburner security model in Hong Kong and Mahathir Mohamad’s security policy in Malaysia, and many other countries like the United States and Russia security strategic models to tackle law and order situation and utilize energy and natural resources for economic revival.